Works (CSEL) 15 part 14/31

'You are our epistle, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.' Dip your flesh in Christ's blood, as it is written: 'that your foot may be dipped in blood.' And you therefore, dip the footprint of your soul and the gait of your mind in the undoubted confession of the Lord's cross. You dip your flesh in Christ's blood if you wash away your vices, wipe off your sins, and carry about the death of Christ in your flesh, as the apostle taught, saying: 'carrying about the mortification of Jesus Christ in our body.' Do not be bent toward earthly things, lest you break your reed. And therefore concerning Christ, because He was not to be bowed to earthly things, it was prophesied:

He will not break the bruised reed, because the flesh which sins had bruised He has made firm by the power of the resurrection. A good reed is the flesh of Christ, which fastened to the gibbet of the cross the head of the serpent the devil and the enticements of worldly desire. But what did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Here the Lord's discourse is not about garments, though the care of softer clothing makes many effeminate, men who, as though unable to bear the weight of wool, drag silken robes that sweep the ground with their trailing hems, and by their habit make their very attire a burden. Yet here He seems to signify other coverings and, unless I am mistaken, human bodies, with which our soul is clothed.

Indeed, Joseph's tunic too was stained with blood as a figure of the Lord's body; and that apostolic saying—'stripping off the flesh, He led in triumph all principalities and powers'—what else does it show but that the body served as a garment, of which the Lord so divested Himself in His Passion that His divinity remained free and immune from injury? This whole passage, then, by the prophetic example, exhorts us to the virtue of undergoing suffering. Finally He added: 'Behold, they that are clothed in costly apparel are in kings' houses.'

There are also soft garments, namely pleasure-loving deeds and ways of life; on account of which the Apostle exhorts us that, stripping off the old man with his deeds, we should put on the new, in whom there is no sweet enticement and wanton play, but the practice of labor and its fruit; because the heavenly court by no means receives those softened by delicate care of the body, by luxury, and by the desire of wanton pleasures—the court to which one ascends by the hard steps of laborious virtue. But those whose limbs are slackened and dissolved by delights, exiles from the kingdom of heaven, grow old within the dwellings of this world, and the rulers of this world and of its darkness—for these are the kings who hold dominion by a certain worldly power—have received them as rivals of their own works. But what did you go out to see? A prophet?

'Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet is this man.' How then did they desire to see John in the wilderness, when he was shut up in prison? Him the Lord sets before us to be imitated, who prepared the way for the Lord not only by the order of being born according to the flesh and by the herald-message of faith, but also by being, as it were, the forerunner of the glorious Passion. Greater indeed is the prophet in whom is the end of the prophets. A greater prophet, because many desired to see Him whom this man prophesied, whom this man beheld, whom this man baptized. Yet is he greater than that One of whom Moses said that 'the Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you,' of whom he said: 'And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be cut off from the people'?

If, then, Christ is a prophet, how is this man greater than all? Do we deny that Christ is a prophet? Nay, rather I affirm that the Lord too is a prophet, and I declare this man to be greater than all—but among those born of woman, not of a virgin. For he was greater than those to whom he could be equal by the lot of birth. That other is a different nature, not to be compared with human generations. There can be no comparison of man with God; for each is preferred above his own kind. In short, so far was there no possible comparison of John with the Son of God, that he is even reckoned below the angels. For 'he that is least,' He says, 'in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.' For since He had called him an angel, he was rightly preferred to men; and because He had declared him greater among those born of women, therefore He added:

'For he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,' that he might know that he must yield to the angels. Rightly, moreover, is John preferred to his equals, since from his days the kingdom of heaven is taken by force. This saying seems somewhat obscure, and therefore we have thought it should be drawn from another book of the Gospel. For if we follow the letter, the inferior is surely 'forced' by the superior, whereas the kingdom of heaven surpasses human things. But since there are some things which are said to be condensed by being pressed together, it is not absurd that the kingdom 'is forced' when it is thronged by many. 'And they that press take it by force.' Let us recall that saying of the Lord which is written, when the Son of God says:

'The kingdom of God is within you.' We perceive that the heavenly kingdom is made firm within us, when Christ reigns within the recesses of our souls, the kingdom of the prince of this world having been driven out and worldly delights put to flight. Force, then, is applied to the human mind, which, charmed by various enticements, flees labor and seeks pleasure, when, either restrained by fear of punishment or roused by reward, it strives to conquer itself, and as though its labors were exhausted, it contends to seize the palm that is being snatched from it by very many adversaries. For we wrest from this world the palm of salvation, and as if besieged we pluck with sleepless toil the fruits guarded by watchful serpents—yet in such a way that it is not a stealthy theft, but a triumphant plunder.

There is also another kind of plundering, when we snatch away things offered to others. Who these plunderers are we have no trouble understanding, since we know that we are sprung from Benjamin, of the race of the ravening wolf. John had gone before to justify the people of the Jews; the Lord Himself had come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; He had appointed the apostles to establish the faith of the Jewish people by argument or by signs and miracles. But when those people fled from the gifts offered to them, the publicans and sinners began to believe in God and to come together into the faith. In these, therefore, by the apostolic preaching, the kingdom of heaven is taken by force and made firm by the breath of a faithful people. She plundered the kingdom who labored under the flow of blood;

for when the Lord was making His way to the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, by a certain stealthy touch she took a foretaste of the remedy of healing. She plundered the kingdom, that Canaanite woman, who, going out from her borders, cried saying: 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed by a demon.' Truly she forced the kingdom, persistent in prayers, wise in answers, faithful in words. She recalls Him as He passes by, entreats Him as He is silent, adores Him as He makes excuse, bends Him as He refuses. Does she not seem to you to seize, when she draws out what is denied, when she snatches beforehand what is reserved for others? For the Lord had denied that the children's bread ought to be given to the dogs; but she consented, and by consenting she plundered, saying: 'Yea, Lord;

for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' You have learned in what manner the heavenly kingdom is seized. Let us too, then, force it, let us plunder it; for no one eats the Passover except in haste. But who is this woman who seizes the kingdom? Not wickedness, not wantonness, not pleasure, but she of whom it is said: 'Great is your faith; be it done to you as you will.' Behold, she seized who obtained what she willed, who wrested away what she asked. That widow also seized, who by frequent praying wrings out a hearing, if not for the sake of innocence, at least for the sake of importunity. The Church, then, has plundered the kingdom of the synagogue. My kingdom is Christ;

I seize Him who was sent to the Jews under the Law, born in the Law, nurtured according to the Law, that He might save me who was without the Law. Christ is seized, when He is promised to some, predestined for others; Christ is seized, when He is born for some, and intercedes for others; Christ is seized, when He is slain by some and buried by us; He is seized from those who lay snares, He is seized from those who sleep. You have proof where they themselves confessed that we seized Him, saying that they slept: 'Say that His disciples came by night and stole Him while we slept.' Arise, then, you who sleep, lest you too, while you sleep, lose Christ. Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead. You see that they who sleep are dead. And therefore we do not envy others, but we provide for ourselves;

for they were not able to keep Him alive. Let those who slept rise up, even though late; even those who lost Christ. Christ is not so lost that He does not return, provided He is sought; but to the watchful He comes back, and to those who rise up He is at hand—nay, He is present to all, who is everywhere always, for He fills all things. He fails no one; it is we who fail. He fails no one, I say; He superabounds toward all; for 'sin abounded, that grace might superabound.' Grace is Christ, life is Christ, Christ is the resurrection. He, then, who rises finds Him present. The kingdom of heaven, therefore, is seized when Christ is denied by His own household and adored by the Gentiles; it is seized when He is rejected by those and worshiped by us;

it is seized when He is not acknowledged through inheritance, but acquired through adoption. BOOK SIX. 'And all the people that heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized by him.' Holy Luke has opened up, by adding particulars, what holy Matthew had left somewhat obscure as though in general terms; for the latter says: 'And wisdom is justified by her children.' First, what that wisdom is we see here expressed; for he says: 'They justified God.' God, therefore, is wisdom, because the Son is the wisdom of God, wisdom by nature, not by advancement. One is the wisdom of God the Father, His power; another is the wisdom which is the virtue of the soul: the one is begotten, the other created.

One wisdom is the author of works, another is the work itself; for it is the work of the mind to be wise with prudence, to perceive with vigor. These are gifts of nature, but the worker is not a creature, but the Creator—that is, not a gift of nature, but the bestower of nature. God Himself, therefore, is justified through baptism, while men justify themselves by confessing their own sins, as it is written: 'Declare your iniquities, that you may be justified'; and He is justified in this, that He is not rejected through stubbornness, but His gift is acknowledged through righteousness; for 'the Lord is righteous and has loved righteousness.' In this, then, is the justification of God: if He is seen to have transferred His gifts not to the unworthy and guilty, but to the innocent and just, made such through the washing.

Let us, then, justify the Lord, that we may be justified by the Lord. Let us inquire more diligently what it means to justify God. The Apostle says: 'But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.' David too says: 'Against you only have I sinned and done evil before you, that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.' Therefore he who sins and confesses his sin to God justifies God, yielding to Him as the victor and hoping for grace from Him. In baptism, then, God is justified, in which there is both confession and the pardon of sins. Let us not, then, like the Pharisees, despise the counsel of God. The counsel of God is in the baptism of John;

who, then, would doubt that there is a counsel of God in the laver of Christ? This is the counsel which 'the angel of great counsel' discovered, which no one knew; 'for who has known the mind of the Lord?' No one despises the counsel of a man; who would reject the counsel of God? Therefore let us, as children, justify our mother and follow our mother. We know that a mother offers herself to danger for her children. Let us obey the counsel of wisdom our mother, the command of our mother. 'We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned, and you have not wept.'

Although these words may not unsuitably be taken as belonging to the person of children, who in their immaturity practice a light movement of the body while a riper gravity is not yet theirs, nevertheless I venture to think they can be referred to a higher meaning, in that the Jews seem to have believed neither the psalms at first nor afterward the prophetic laments—roused by the psalms to rewards, recalled by the laments from error. David sang, that we might hang our instruments upon the willows; he himself also sang and danced before the ark of the Lord, not out of wantonness, but out of religion. Therefore not the leaps of a body bent with the movements of stage-players, but the active and religious agility of a mind and body devout, is signified.

But correction did not follow, either in the triumphs or in the destructions of the Jews, who, roused by the gifts of divine indulgence, ought to have lifted up their minds, raised their bodies, forsaken earthly things, sought heavenly things, and, worn down by the injuries of captivity, ought to have bewailed the sin whose guilt was the author of their injury. 'Wisdom, therefore, is justified by all her children.' Well does it say 'by all,' because justice is preserved toward all—that there may be the reception of the faithful, the rejection of the perfidious. Whence also very many Greek copies have it thus: 'Wisdom is justified by all her works,' because it is the work of justice to preserve measure in respect to each one's merit. Well, then, does it say: 'We have piped to you, and you have not danced.'

For Moses sang, when at the crossing of the Jews the wave grew stiff in the Red Sea, the water stood round about, and the same water, flowing back, drowned the horses and riders of the Egyptians. Isaiah sang the song of his beloved vineyard, signifying that the people, fruitful before in virtues, would become harsh with crimes. The Hebrews sang, when their footsteps grew moist with the touch of a dewy flame, and while all things burned within and without, the harmless fire only licked them alone and did not scorch. Habakkuk too, taught by his song to soothe the public sadness, prophesied that the Lord's Passion would be sweet to the faithful.

The prophets, then, sang, sounding forth in spiritual measures the oracles of the common salvation; the prophets wept, soothing with mournful laments the hard hearts of the Jews. Scripture has taught us to sing with gravity, to make melody spiritually; it has taught us also to dance wisely, when the Lord says to Ezekiel: 'Clap your hand and stamp your foot.' For neither would God, the censor of morals, demand the stage-player's motions of a loose body, nor command unseemly clappings of men and womanish applause, that He should lead so great a prophet to the mockeries of stage-actors and to the soft ways of women. The revealed mysteries of the resurrection and the disgraces of dancing required do not agree.

Yet there is, there truly is, a certain applause proper to good deeds and works, whose sound goes out into the whole world and re-echoes the glory of things well done; there is an honorable dancing, by which the spirit is enriched and the body is lifted up by good works, when we hang our instruments upon the willows. The prophet, then, is commanded to clap his hand and stamp his foot, he is commanded to make melody, because he already saw the nuptials of the Bridegroom, in which the Church is espoused and Christ is beloved. And good is the marriage, when the soul weds the Word, and the flesh weds the Spirit. To these nuptials the prophet David wished us to make merry, to these he invited us, because he was joining together his own descendants; and therefore, more joyful than the rest, as though set in the very act of the wedding, he exhorts us to the celebration of the festive gift, saying:

'Rejoice in God our helper, shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Take up a psalm and bring the timbrel, the pleasant psaltery with the harp.' Do you not perceive a certain action of the prophet dancing? Again elsewhere: 'I will make melody to you on the harp, O Holy One of Israel. My lips shall rejoice when I sing to you, and my soul, which you have redeemed.' Do you hear the voices of those who play the harp, do you hear the noise of those who dance? Believe it a wedding. Take up also yourself the harp, that, struck by the plectrum of the spirit, the strings of your inner veins may render the sound of good work. Take up the psaltery, that the harmony of your words and deeds may sound together. Take up the timbrel, that the inner spirit may modulate the instrument of your body, and that, as your deeds work, the sweet pleasantness of your ways may be expressed. Thus the prophet made melody when he said:

'Come hither from Lebanon, my spouse, come hither from Lebanon.' This song the children sang, and they were not heard. What children? Those of whom He says: 'Behold, I and the children whom you have given me.' But this song was sung not in the marketplace, not in the streets, but in Jerusalem; for she herself is the Lord's marketplace, in which the laws of the heavenly precepts are established. 'And behold, a woman who was a sinner in the city.' In this place very many seem to suffer a scruple, to sow questions, whether the two evangelists seem to have disagreed about the fact, or whether rather they wished to signify some difference of mystery in the diversity of their words.

For you have in the Gospel according to Matthew that 'when Jesus had come into Bethany into the house of Simon the leper, there came to Him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and as He reclined she poured it upon His head.' Then there the Pharisee says within himself that, if He were a prophet, He would know her to be a sinner and ought to avoid her ointment; there, when the ointment was poured out, the disciples complain. Both passages, therefore, must be explained, but let what is first in the order of the writers receive also the earlier order of interpretation. The Lord Jesus, then, came into the house of Simon the leper. The plan of salvation is apparent, that He did not flee the leper, did not avoid the unclean, that He might be able to wash away the stains of the human body. Now the house of the leper was in Bethany;

Bethany, by interpretation, is called 'the house of obedience.' Every place, then, is Bethany, but a portion of the whole place is the house of Simon. Does not Bethany seem to you to be this world, in which we owe the homage of obedient servitude, but the house of Simon the leper to be the earth, which is a portion of the world? Now the prince of this world is a certain leprous Simon. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ came from those higher places into this world and descended to the earth. He was not in this world, but by obedient devotion He was sent into this world. He Himself says: 'As you sent me into this world.' This woman, then, heard that Christ had come, and she entered into the house of Simon;

for this woman could not have been healed unless Christ had come to the earth. And perhaps for this reason she too enters the house of Simon, because she bears the figure of a certain higher soul—namely, of the Church—which descended to the earth, that it might gather a people to itself by a good fragrance. This woman, then, Matthew brings in as pouring out ointment over the head of Christ, and therefore he perhaps did not wish to call her a sinner; for the sinful woman, according to Luke, poured out ointment over the feet of Christ. It is possible, therefore, that she is not the same, lest the evangelists be thought to have said something contrary to each other. The question may also be resolved by a difference of merit and of time, so that the former is still a sinner, while the latter is now more perfect.

For even if the Church or the soul does not change its person, yet it changes its progress. And so, if you imagine a soul faithfully drawing near to God, not serving base and obscene sins, but piously serving the word of God, having the confidence of an unstained chastity, you perceive that it ascends to the very head of Christ; for 'the head of Christ is God,' and it scatters the fragrance of its merits. For 'we are the good fragrance of Christ unto God'; indeed the life of the just, breathing forth a good fragrance, honors God. If you understand this, you will see that this woman is plainly blessed, who, wherever this Gospel shall be preached, is named, and the memory of her never fades, in that over the head of Christ she poured out the fragrance of good ways and just deeds as ointment.

He who draws near to the head knows not how to be puffed up, like that man vainly inflated by the mind of his flesh and not holding the head. But let him who does not hold the head of Christ at least hold the feet, because the one body, joined together and supplied, grows into the increase of God. That other woman is different—either a different person or different in progress—who is near to us; for we have not yet renounced our sins. Where are our tears, where the groans, where the weeping? 'Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us weep before the Lord who made us,' that we may at least be able to come to the feet of Jesus. For we cannot yet come to the head; the sinner comes to the feet, the just to the head. Yet she also who sinned has ointment. Offer me too repentance after your sins.

Wherever, whether into the house of an unworthy man, or into the house of a Pharisee, you hear that a just one has come, hasten, snatch beforehand the grace from your host, snatch beforehand the kingdom of heaven; for 'from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and they that press take it by force.' Wherever you hear the name of Christ, run to it: into whosesoever inner house you learn that Jesus has entered, you too make haste. When you have found wisdom, when you have found justice reclining in someone's inner chambers, run to the feet—that is, seek at least the outermost part of wisdom. Do not disdain the feet; she touched the hem and was healed. With tears confess your sins, that that heavenly justice may say of you too: 'With her tears she watered my feet and wiped them with her hair.'

And perhaps for this reason Christ did not wash His own feet, that we might wash them with our tears. Good are the tears which can not only wash away our sin, but also water the footstep of the heavenly Word, so that His steps may abound in us. Good are the tears in which there is not only the redemption of sinners, but also the refreshment of the just; for the voice of the just is this: 'My tears have been my bread.' Even if you cannot draw near to the head of Christ, let Christ touch your head with His feet. Both His hem heals, and His feet bring healing. Spread out your hair, strew before Him all the dignities of your body. Not common are the hairs which can wipe the feet of Christ. He testifies to this who, as long as he had his hair, could not be overcome.

In short, it is not fitting even for a woman shorn of her hair to pray. Let her plainly have hair, with which to wrap the footsteps of Christ, with which to wipe with the locks of her beauty the feet of the comeliness of wisdom, that they may at least grow moist with the final dew of divine virtue, and let her fix kisses on the feet of justice. This is no small merit. Of her wisdom can say: 'From the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet,' so that she knows not how to speak anything but wisdom, knows not how to love anything but justice, knows not how to taste anything but chastity, knows not how to kiss anything but purity. For a kiss is the sign of mutual love, a kiss is the pledge of charity. Blessed is the one who can also anoint the feet of Christ with oil. Indeed, Simon had not yet anointed;

but more blessed is she who anoints with ointment; for the grace of many flowers, gathered into one, scatters the varied sweetnesses of perfumes. And perhaps this ointment none could bring save the Church alone, who has innumerable flowers of diverse breath, who deservedly receives the appearance of a sinner, because Christ too took the form of a sinner. And therefore no one can love so much as she who loves in many. Not even Peter himself, who said, 'Lord, you know that I love you'; not even Peter himself, who grieved because he was asked, 'Do you love me?'—for he did not wish to be asked as though unknown what was already manifest. Therefore not even Peter himself, because the Church loved in Peter; nor Paul himself, because Paul too is a portion of her.

And do you also love greatly, that to you also much may be forgiven. Paul sinned much, who was even a persecutor, but he loved much, he who persevered even unto martyrdom. Many sins were forgiven him, because he too loved much, he who did not spare his own blood for the name of God. See the plan of salvation: in the house of the Pharisee the sinful woman is glorified; in the house of the law and the prophet, not the Pharisee, but the Church is justified; for the Pharisee did not believe, while she believed. In short, he said: 'If He were a prophet, He would surely know who and what kind of woman this is who touches Him.' But the house of the law is Judea, which is written not on stones, but on the tablets of the heart. In this the Church is justified, now greater than the law;

for the law knows not the remission of sins, the law has not the mystery by which hidden things are cleansed; and therefore what is lacking in the law is consummated in the Gospel. 'Two debtors,' He says, 'there were to a certain creditor: one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty.' Who are these two debtors but the two peoples, one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles, indebted to that creditor of the heavenly treasure? 'One,' He says, 'owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty.' No common coin is this denarius, on which the image of the king is formed, which bears the emperor's likeness stamped upon it.

It is not material money that we owe to this creditor, but the assays of merits, the bronze of virtues, whose worth is weighed by the weight of gravity, by the appearance of justice, by the sound of confession. Woe is me if I shall not have what I received—or because it is hard for anyone to be able to pay this creditor the whole debt entire—woe is me if I shall not have prayed: 'Forgive me my debt!' For the Lord would not have taught us so to pray, that we should ask our debts to be forgiven us, unless He knew that some would scarcely be fit debtors. But who is this people that owes more, except us, to whom more has been entrusted? To them were entrusted the oracles of God; to us is entrusted the Virgin's offspring. You have for a talent the Virgin's offspring; you have the hundredfold fruit of faith.

Entrusted to us is Emmanuel, God with us; entrusted is the Lord's cross, death, resurrection. Although Christ suffered for all, yet for us He suffered in a special way, because He suffered for the Church. And so there is no doubt that he who has received more owes more. And according to men, perhaps he offends more who owes more; but through the mercy of the Lord the case is changed, so that he loves more who owed more, provided he obtains grace. For grace both he who repays has, and he who has it pays in the very fact that he has it; for it is both had by repaying and given back by having.